Authoritarian Containment: Public Security Bureaus and Protestant House Churches in Urban China

In Authoritarian Containment, Marie-Eve Reny examines why local public security bureaus tolerate unregistered Protestant churches in urban China—an officially atheist country where religious practice is controlled by the state—when the central government considers them illegal. She argues that local states tolerate these churches to contain the underground practice of Protestantism. Containment necessitates a bargain between informal religious organizations and the state. Even though they a...